janette34

You should book him sooner rather than later. We had a TTD with him on April 18 and he told me that he was going to be putting his prices up soon b/c he has been so busy.

We were fortunate that we had 35 guests book and no major complaints just annoying questions like "will I get shot at the airport" and "can I leave my room at the resort". Seriously people just b/c it dangerous in part of the country doesn't mean the complete other side of the country is dangerous too! What I have found annoying is that no one really took the wedding seriously, my bachorlette party was only planned less than a week before we left and no one bothered with gifts and since the wedding we received about 4 cards. I did not get married for the gifts but come on how hard is it to at least congratulate us. My other complaint was while we were at the resort no one seemed to care that it was our day, for example after the reception a shuttle came to pick us up and everyone jumped on and left me and my husband standing there - shouldn't we get priority? Sadly after having a few too many drinks I loudly made a comment about this and eventually a few people got off to make room for me, the dress, all the flowers and extras we were carrying. That really annoyed me - here we are with our arms full of things and everyone thought it was completely ok to think only about themselves and not offer to help or let us take their spots on the shuttle.

Here is mine. I so badly wanted the capiz chandelier and I'm glad they were able to put it up but it was all I could hear during the ceremony!

Nope, no adhesive or glue but you could, it certainly wouldn't hurt. It was very windy the day of my wedding and I noticed afterwards that WC's did make an extra tie around the starfish with ribbon I had packed.

Sunset was approximately 7 pm, our ceremony was scheduled for 5 pm, but by the time I got there it was probably closer to 5:30. The starfish came from Winners, clam shells from ebay as well as the chair sashes, fans from Oriental Trading and I made the pew markers with ribbon, raffia and the starfish. I'm just waiting to get some more pictures and I'll show you the palapa set up, which was beyond my expectations! The ladies at the spa did an amazing job, I didn't even know I could clean up that nice.

They weren't hard to make at all. I just found a picture on google I liked, played around a bit until I liked what I had and went from there. Basically I started with a loop of rafia, added some ribbon and tied that around the starfish to hold everything in place.

My mother's dress came from Ebay and the maid of honor's dress came from a local bridal store that was having a huge gown sale so we got it for $49. My sister in law is currently uploading our photos so once she is done I'll post some pictures from ceremony/reception.

Also consider whether or not you want adults only or a family friendly resort. Do you want a long trip to/from the airport? Some of the resorts out towards Tulum could take up to two hours or more to reach depending on how many stops your bus has to make.

My package included one bouquet, but I wanted the real touch flowers so I could take them to our TTD 2 days later. I gave the free flowers to my cousin (maid of honor) so I'm not sure what it would have cost to actually buy an extra.

For anyone thinking of ordering flowers from Bloom Bridal - DO IT!!! Although I was super frustrated that they didn't arrive when they were scheduled too they turned out absolutely gorgeous!

I know, I don't know what I'm going to do now! The past year has been devoted to wedding planning and I'm already starting some serious withdrawl.

We had an amazing week at the Grand Sirenis and things couldn't have gone better, my only regret is not staying for two weeks! I don't have all my photos yets but here are some that the on-site photographer took. The quality is actually much better than it appears but they are scanned onto my computer so some of the detail/sharpness has been lost. Although I don't have a picture of the palapa set up yet I can tell you it was absolutely amazing!!! Elizabeth was my wedding coordinator and totally went above and beyond my expectations. And a pic of our TTD with Juan Navarro

I am here now and my wedding was on Monday. We met with the WC, Elizabeth the day after we arrived for about 2 hours and went over everything. The wedding was amazing and they did a great job at doing what I asked. I know its stressful but try not to worry about the wedding details, they went above and beyond my expectations.

Here's an update on the flowers in case anyone is worried about their order: Judy paid extra to have the flowers shipped express via Fedex. Fedex promised that they would be delivered today, but the flowers didn't make it to their distribution center before their truck made it my area and don't deliver to my area on Fridays. So after a bunch of phone calls between Judy, Fedex and myself Fedex has made an exception and will be delivering the flowers tomorrow morning at approximately 8 am.

I'm so not impressed right now, my real touch flowers from Bloom Bridal were scheduled to arrive today and haven't, its now after 5 pm here so they won't arrive either. We leave tomorrow, I'm super frustrated - what was the point of requesting a ship date of April 1 if they weren't going to be shipped until April 10! They were beautiful, but useless now.

Today my mother, aunt and myself made cookies for the In Flight Snack Packs that I'm giving out at the airport (only 2 more sleeps!). And here's a pic of my real touch flowers that should arrive tomorrow.

I'm so frustrated!!! We leave in 3 days and my flowers from Bloom Bridal just got shipped out today! I'm on the east coast so its not like they will be here tomorrow. I love my flowers she has created but found the whole process very frustrating. I like to be prepared so I had requested that my ship date be April 1 and I didn't actually get any approval pics until April 2. So after all this my ship date went from being April 1 to April 10 - just a word of caution for anyone who is considering ordering flowers. Congrats to all the other brides who are departing in the next few days!

I'm kinda feeling the same way, somehow the orchids take away from the rest of the bouquet.

Ok so here is my update on the flowers. Would love to hear your opinions. Do I keep as is or do I get rid of the hanging orchids all together?

We're flying out of Halifax, Nova Scotia and my TA is also my aunt so she got us rates a year ago for about $1350 per person, taxes in with the chance of a rebate if the price dropped within 45 days of our departure, it didn't but that's okay as I actually expected to pay between around $1500 that far in advance. The Grand Sirenis is a little over an hour from the airport, could be more if you have other guests on your bus getting dropped off at different resorts. The hotel itself has a good range of wedding packages from around $2000 to $6000 dollars depending on how many extras you want. They also have a free package but you need to book a lot of rooms to receive that. For kids the Grand SIrenis would be great they have a kids club, lazy river, ice cream shop, etc. Our main reasons for picking it was the price, the fact we had stayed there before and their private beach wedding location. I can give you more info and some pictures in a few weeks if you like. You could also check out the Gran Bahia properties, little farther yet probably closer to 1 1/2 - 2 hours from the resort but we loved that property too and did look into booking it for our wedding.

Not sure where you are flying from but you could check out the Ocean Turquesa, its only about a 20 minute drive from the airport. We booked a last minute trip and got an awesome deal so I'm not sure what the cost would be for an advanced group booking. It has a nice beach without as much coral/coarse sand as many do in the Riviera.

April 16, 2012, departing April 13 Grand Sirenis Riviera Maya SO FREAKING EXCITED!

Magnetic Car sign that says Just Married for your trip home from the airport!

I'm sure lots of ladies would love to help so maybe you can give us a bit more info. How many people do you expect? Will there be children? What price range do you want your guests to pay? Do you mind a long drive to the airport? Do you want to be close to the action in Playa del Carmen?

White orchids are what I originally requested but the only white orchids they had were too short to trail down properly. I have sent her an email letting her know that I really don't care for the current orchids so I'm waiting patiently to hear back.